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North Carolina - A police officer who lost his job after he was seen kicking his canine partner, Ricoh, several times, may get his job back, including 5 years worth of back pay. According to WITN News, North Carolina's second highest court believes that Charles Jones, who was fired in 2007, should be reinstated to his position. The 2007 kicking incident involved Jones hoisting his Belgian Malinois partner, Ricoh, off of the ground and repeatedly kicking him in what he claims was an effort to get him to release his training tool - a piece of fire hose. Jones has...

DNA Test Helps Enforce Pet Clean Up Policy SAN DIEGO - The same DNA technology that has solved cold case murders is now being used to crack down on a whole new class of criminals: dog owners who don't clean up after their pets. "Unfortunately, people leave surprises in my yard, but I always carry plastic bags, so I can clean up those surprises," said dog owner Ted Stevens. Now, BioPet Vet Lab ,a company in Knoxville, Tenn., has developed technology that is says can identify the dogs that leave unwelcome calling cards on neighborhood lawns. The system, called Pooprints,...

Out for a walk with 42 Saint Bernard dogs Lasquite's Saint Bernards on Lasqueti Island Canada (Click onto the link to view the two-minute + video on the Fox 43 WPMT webpage)

Dog: man's best friend for over 33,000 years He's been man's best friend for generations. An ancient dog skull found in Siberia and dating back 33,000 years presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication. When combined with a similar find in Belgium, the two skulls indicate that the domestication of dogs by humans occurred repeatedly throughout early human history at different geographic locations -- rather than at a single domestication event, as previously believed. "Both the Belgian find and the Siberian find are domesticated species based on morphological characteristics," said Greg Hodgins, a researcher at the University...

It may have looked like they were ready for war or some deranged person looking for his late Social Security benefits. But it was only Federal Protective Service officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who were conducting a random training operation early Tuesday morning when they surprisingly showed up at the Social Security Administration office in downtown Leesburg. With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building. "I thought...

The loyal dog of a fallen Iowa NAVY SEAL that touched the hearts of millions of Americans has found a new home. Hawkeye, the dog of Petty Officer Jon Tumilson of Rockford, laid longingly in front of his master's casket at his funeral last month. Pictures of the dog's final salute spread through the internet. One of Tumilson's friends from Fort Bragg, North Carolina has now adopted Hawkeye. The same friend had watched the chocolate lab while Tumilson was deployed. A Fort Bragg spokesperson says Hawkeyes adoption went according to Tumilson's final wishes. Tumilson was one of 30 Americans killed...

SENT VIA EMAIL Subject: Retired disabled military dog Rocky dies if not adopted — Pets For Patriots Blog Three tours in Iraq and they want to kill this Marine.  Disgusting end for one of our veterans. Our military should stand by our K-9 soldiers or leave them alone.   I have forwarded this article on to my congressman.  Prayers up for someone to love and help Rocky.  Read comments after article.   Carl http://blog.petsforpatriots.org/retired-disabled-military-dog-rocky/ PLEASE CONGRESSMAN HULTGREN, HELP THIS VETERAN OUT.  THANK YOU. CARL SWENSEN

Illinois State Trooper Steve Steckenrider looks back on his partner's career as K9 Ace, a 9-year-old Belgian Malinois, nears retirement next year.

Meet Cairo from SEAL Team Six Cairo -like most canine members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs-  is a Belgian Malinois. The breed is similar to a German Shepherd but a bit smaller/more compact -an adult male cca 65 lbs- and is therefore considered better for various parachute jumping and rappelling operations with the USN's SEAL teams.  And this particular dog was indeed the one that entered the Abbottabad compound that night... he even got to meet Obama afterward, although it's doubtful the dog was impressed, these things can smell weakness a mile away, heh. Like their human counterparts, the K9 SEALs are highly...

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- New Castle police are conducting an internal investigation to determine how the department's K-9 officer died. The dog, named Chico, died suddenly Saturday. Sources said the dog was left in a police cruiser on Saturday afternoon. Chico was a 6-year-old , brindle-colored Dutch shepherd that joined the city's K-9 unit in December 2009. Channel 11's Amy Marcinkiewicz reported that Chico's handler left him in the car with the air conditioning running, which is proper protocol. Sources close to the investigation told Marcinkiewicz that the air conditioning unit stopped working and an emergency sensor device on the...

SAN DIEGO -- Two small dogs have been quarantined after one of them chewed a couple of toes off of their elderly owner early Thursday, investigators said. Police received an emergency call just before 5:30 a.m. from the man's caretaker. The caller said he found the victim lying in bed amid blood-soaked sheets at their home in the 200 block of West California Street in Mission Hills. The caretaker then discovered that his roommate was missing three left toes and that one of the men's two small dogs had blood on its snout, SDPD spokeswoman Andra Brown said. Paramedics took...

A Valley neighborhood is outraged after two dogs are shot and killed by local police. The Shelburn Town Marshal says he was forced to shoot two dogs. Officer Doug Inman says he was called to a field off Mill Street, where neighbors say a pack of dogs were fighting. Inman tried to break-up the fight and even fired shots into the ground to scare the dogs. When that didn't work he shot two mastiff puppies. The family says he had no right to kill the dogs. "I'm just glad it wasn't a child out being attacked by these two dogs,"...

S.Korea to Buy $1.2 Bil Dollar Worth of K9 and F-15Ks The South Korean government has set a 1.4 trillion won or about 1.2-billion-US-dollar budget in purchasing K-9 self-propelled howitzers and F-15K fighter jets with the hopes of strengthening the country's military and naval forces. According to finance and defense ministries on Friday the amount of next year's national defense budget has increased 5.8 percent compared to this year's. Such an increase is seen as an effort to strengthen South Korea's military capabilities in the wake of North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island this week. With the newly set budget...

<p>Target was credited with saving American lives in Afghanistan.</p> <p>FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) - A dog named Target that lived through explosions in war-torn Afghanistan couldn't survive a brief stay at an Arizona animal shelter.</p>

<p>A Tumwater police officer will miss about six weeks of work after he was bitten in the groin by a Thurston County Sheriff’s Office police dog Sunday night, according to Tumwater Police Chief John Stines.</p> <p>The officer was investigating a burglary in the former Olympia brewery when he was bitten about 7 p.m. He drove himself to Providence St. Peter Hospital, then was taken by ambulance to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Stines said. He since has been released.</p>

Small dog vs. big cat: US farmer shoots mountain lion after terrier trees animal By The Associated Press (CP) COLMAN, S.D. — A 150-pound (68-kilogram) mountain lion was no match for a squirrel-chasing terrier. Jack the Jack Russell weighs only 17 pounds (8 kilograms), and yet he managed to trap the cougar up a tree on Tuesday on a farm in the north-central state of South Dakota. Jack's owner, Chad Strenge, told The Argus Leader that the dog "trees cats all the time," and that the plucky terrier probably "figured it was just a cat." Professor Jonathan Jenks, who tracks...

A Miami-Dade judge has decided to drop the felony charge facing a former cop who is on trial for killing his K-9 companion. Allen Cockfield faced prison time if convicted of killing a police dog, which is a third degree felony. Cockfield, a 25-year veteran of the Miami-Dade police force, is accused of choking and then kicking Duke the K-9 repeatedly during an obedience training session in 2006. The two had been partners for six months before the incident happened. The judge ruled Cockfield didn't intend to kill Duke, despite his violent actions. The former cop still faces animal cruelty...

Sometimes the good guys win without a lot of trouble or effort on their part.  Consider this story out of Fife Washington. A little over a week ago on July 8th, a couple of criminals were loading cocaine into their vehicle, while unknown to them they were being watched by local police.  When the police had enough to bust the dealers, they began approaching the vehicle.  Unfortunately the police were not as stealthy as they should have been because the drug dealers were able to take off in their vehicle.  With the cops in hot pursuit the drug dealers...

How LOST should have ended... Dream of the yellow dog

Police dogs are extraordinary animals. A police K9 must be intelligent, brave, loyal and dedicated. Future police dogs are selected with care. Prospective K9 handlers are chosen from an elite group of experienced patrol officers. There are times however, when a dog just doesn’t quite make the grade. Some of these dogs end up in civilian homes. Life with one is an Experience. After a series of odd twists of fate, I became the owner of a former K9. A dog can be disqualified from police service due to some physical problem that doesn’t affect the dog’s ability to be...